Tag: Slang

MAX: Is something wrong?LORELAI: No.MAX: You can tell me. That’s what I’m here for.LORELAI: I thought it was just for eye candy.

Eye candy is slang for a person or object which is attractive and pleasing to look at; a treat for the eyes. Lorelai’s joke probably has some truth to it – that her attraction to Max is mostly physical.

RORY: I just thought if she saw how we lived, and how pretty it was with the lake and the swans …LORELAI: That she’d do a happy dance?

In slang terms, a “happy dance” is any spontaneous dance done in celebration, or in order to gloat at personal success.

It’s especially known from the Peanuts cartoons by Charles M. Schulz, where Snoopy does an excited happy dance whenever Charlie Brown brings him food. This may have been part of Lorelai and Chris’ performance when they sang Suppertime, from the musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

PARIS: Tristan asking me out? Why would he do that?RORY: Why would he not do that?PARIS: Because he’s gorgeous and experienced and only dates those most likely to become a trophy wife.

Trophy wife is the term for a woman believed to be only chosen by her wealthy husband as a status symbol, usually because she’s young(er) and attractive. It is derogatory to both people in the marriage; the inference being that the man can only attract women because of his money, and that the woman has nothing to offer except her appearance. The term dates to perhaps the 1950s, but became popularised in the 1980s.

The audience knows why Lorelai and Rory are so quiet. Rory is depressed about breaking up with her boyfriend Dean, and Lorelai’s relationship with Max has hit an impasse: they reunited and both love each other, but the problems that ended their relationship are still there with no solutions in sight.

Lorelai says, “Dig it, man”, which is hippie slang from the 1960s meaning, “Get it, understand it, know it”. The hippies might have added the “man”, but “dig it” goes back at least to the 1930s as African-American slang, and even in the 19th century Americans spoke about “digging” in the sense of knowing or studying something.

Rory responds in a similarly counter-culture way by saying “Peace out, Humphrey”. “Peace out” is hippie slang meaning “Goodbye, go in peace”, influenced by the radio sign-off, “Over and out”.

Rory is possibly referring to Hubert Humphrey (1911-1978) who was the Vice President under President Lyndon Johnson from 1965 to 1969. The main author of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he introduced the initiative of the Peace Corps and the National Peace Agency. Sceptical of the war in Vietnam, he was forced to support it in loyalty to Johnson. He was the Democratic nominee in the 1968 presidential election but lost to Richard Nixon – you could say that he “peaced out”.